Driver charged after boy is forgotten on school bus

Child is also chased by a pit bull inside a fence

Updated 8:17 pm, Friday, October 12, 2012

Nine-year-old Theo Jones climbed onto his school bus early Wednesday morning for his usual quick trip to Katherine Smith Elementary in northwest Houston.

Yet six hours later at 1 p.m., the third-grader still hadn't arrived. That's when residents a block south of the school heard piercing screams and spotted the boy running for his life inside a bus yard enclosed by a locked metal fence. He was being chased by a pit bull that had been posted as a guard dog.

Now, bus driver Simona Chairez Alcaide, 52, faces a felony charge of child endangerment for failing to check her bus for students before parking the vehicle there and leaving the area, said Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

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If the driver had inspected the bus, authorities say, she would have discovered Theo curled up asleep on a back seat.

The boy awoke hours later to find himself alone on the locked bus, from which he managed to somehow pry himself free - only to be met by the guard dog, authorities said.

Neighbors reported seeing the dog, with teeth bared, jumping onto Theo and biting his backpack. One neighbor threw some food through the fence in to distract the animal while another neighbor gave the boy a quick boost over the railing before he suffered any serious injury.

Theo was taken to an area hospital and was found to be only frightened and dehydrated from his ordeal, Smith said.

The bus and others on the lot belong to Alcaide Bus Service, which is owned by the bus driver who was charged in the case. Parents pay for their children to use the service or others like it because they live within two miles of their student's school and don't qualify for a regular school bus, said Jason Spencer, Houston school district spokesman.

"These services are required to use drivers with commercial licenses, but they aren't regulated beyond that," Spencer said. "Our drivers go through rigorous safety training. They are required to check their bus for students before leaving it."

Alcaide was arrested and released on $5,000 bail, according to jail records. She could not be reached for comment.